Sunday, November 23, 2014

Cantilever Brake Pad install — winter is coming

Winter is coming. New cantilever pads may be required, but they are such a pain to install and adjust. #endlesswashers

With winter coming, Tricia thought she should give her Surly Cross Check commuter bike a good going over. One thing she thought it needed was new brake pads, so we spent some time installing them.

If you're a roadie you know that installing road pads is a five-minute job. Just unscrew a set screw, slide out the old, slide in the new and retighten. No big deal.

These cantilever pads are a different story. They are so hard to get just right I don't even have a metaphor or simile for it, and I always have one handy for almost everything.

There are just too many dished washers and angles to make it easy, and everything has to be held in place just so as you tighten it, as the tightening itself tries to rearrange the parts. If you came to this page looking for advice, sorry. I can only offer sympathy.

On the brighter side, the light install went better (see what I did there?) Tricia has a set of MonkeyLectric wheel lights, one of which stopped working last year. After cleaning it and trying several fixes the company recommended, I gave up and hung the wheel on the wall. I finally got a new light to install. When I took down the wheel and tried to figure out which light was broken, they both worked. Perhaps my fix worked, or some hidden moisture left the system. The great news is they work, they are installed, and I now have a light to toss on my own bike.

Here's our ten-second test video.


1 comment:

  1. I biked through the north cascades some years ago at the start of a x-country trip. Lovely place and great photos!

    Also, the cantilever brake thing.... I just put new ones on my old mountain bike commuter... they are evil things, and I share your frustrations in the difficulties in getting the right!

    Happy New Year!

    Keith

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